Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.

Date:: 1860

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

699/800 (page 643)

In consequence of which reflections, fortified by the physical deductions elsewhere em- bodied in “ Types of Mankind,” we have assigned to MoNGOL-onyiwa a distinct column in our theoretical Tableau of human palaeographie history. For the objects of anthropology, the above explanatory remarks would be sufficient, were not notions current among those readers, who look to theology for biblical criteria, to metaphysics for archaeological—1st., that the “Chinese” are recorded in Scripture; and ergo, that Mongolian races were familiar to Jewish writers; 2d., that “Chinese vases” have been found in tombs of the XVIIIth dynasty at Thebes; and ergo, that Egypt and China were in positive communication about the time of Moses. (272) So we digress. Once upon a time an adage prevailed in literary controversies—Cave hominem unius libri. Through what impairing causes is to us unknown, but certain it is, that in proportion as one ascends in English theological literature to the Kennicotts, Warburtons, Lowths, Cud- worths, Stillingfleets, Waltons, and other intellectual giants of that deceased school, so one’s respect for divines and one’s reverence for Scripture augment. They had one book to study professionally, and that book they knew well; because they actually read it. It would appear that there are cycles of deterioration, as evident in theology as in the weather, to judge by what took place in China about a. d. 1368; and inasmuch as our inquiries first concern the Chinese, it is but fair that they should open proceedings. The Emperor Houng-Wou, appalled at the degradation of scholarship consequent upon the tragic events that preceded him, one day convoked the “ Tribunals of Literature ” (equivalent to the French Ministbre d’Inst,ruction Publique),(273) and made to them a com- mon sense speech, the pith of which is here in extract: “ The ancients,” said he, “ the ancients used to write but few books, but they made them good. . . . Our modern litterali wifite a great deal, and upon subjects that cannot be of the slightest real utility. . . . The ancients wrote with perspicacity, and their writings were suited to the comprehension of everybody. ... In former times their works were read with pleasure, and one reads them at this day [a. d. 1368, in China!] with the same. ... You [addressing himself to the Censors of the Press], you, who stand at the head of literature, make all your efforts to restore good sense: you will never succeed but by imitating the ancients. (274) In the days between Walton and Kennicott, a theological student who might have ven- tured to opine that the Chinese are mentioned in the Bible, would have been sent inconti- nently to read the Hebrew text of Isaiah. (275) When this task was executed (and, for- merly, divinity students could read a little Hebrew), the young man would have found a place on the lowest form, by command of the Professor of History, for ignorance of the rudiments of his class. Shame would soon have impelled an ingenuous youth, of those days gone by, to cram his head with simple facts of which some of his elders in theology now seem unaware. (276) Chinese history — in this question the most valid — proves that, until the year 102 after Christ, the Chinese never knew of the existence of any countries situate north and west of Persia. Between the years 89-106 a. d., in the reign of IIo-Ti, a vast Chinese army, under General Kan-Ying, detached by the Commander-in-Chief, Pan-tchao, halted on the shores of the Caspian Sea; (277) receiving the submission of the Tad-jiks (Persians) and (272) Vide Gijddox’s IVth Lecture — reported in “ Daily Dispatch,” March 18; and in “ Richmond Examiner,” March 21; Richmond, Va., 1851. Also, more extensively, in “The Union,” Washington, D. C., April 25, 1851. The abusive writers alluded to in that discourse, as “ Mere youths in science, and to fame unknown,” were the reverend authors of “Unity of the Human Races,” 1S50; of an article in the Princeion Review, 1851; and of a third article, the one prelauded [supra, p. 587], as emanating from an Ass. of Min. at Col., S. C. (273) Ed. Biot: Essai sur VInstructionpublique en Chine; 1846. (274) Pauthier: Chine cl’apres les Documents Chinois; pp. 393, 394. (275) Isaiah ; xlix. 12. (276) Rev. Thomas Smtthe, D. D.: Unity of the Human Races; 1850; p. 43; — Rev. Dr. Howe : Southern Pres- byterian Review; Columbia, S. C., No. 3, Jan. 1851; &c. (277) Remusat: Mem. sur VExtension dc VEmpire Chin, du coU de VOccident;—Pauthier, Chine; pp. 258-260

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